Making Ends Meet
Based on a Metafilter item I did a little look-up to discover what’s minimum wage in Australia. It’s AU$11.35 per hour, based on a 38-hour week. Don’t ask me how they get a 38-hour week, though, since that’s 7.6 hours per day. 0.6 hours is 36 minutes. I guess that’s lunch. Meanwhile, back in the States, minimum wage varies, with US$8.50 in San Francisco vs. US$5.15 in NYC. A Federal standard seems worthwhile, so long as it raises the bar for everyone, but then Australia’s workforce is much smaller and more easily administered, perhaps. Oh, and at the current exchange rate, AU$11.35 is US$8.63. (Adjusting for a 40-hour week, the wage would be approximately US$8.20. I’d say our waitresses can outspend service personnel in the U.S., by and large.)